Jillian Rose Reed stars on MTV’s offbeat comedy Awkward (which has been picked up for a second season) as the sassy and fun-loving best friend Tamara. Now 19, Jillian was only 9 years old when her older brother developed diabetes. He was away at college, which she notes made it especially frightening for him and the entire family. There was a lot of worry and fear, she told me, until he got diagnosed and got his diabetes under control. Even after that, life didn’t go on an even keel. He nearly slipped into a diabetic coma before seeking medical help once when he was sick, because he didn’t understand the complexities and potential complications of this medical condition.

There are an estimated 25.8 million people in the United States who have diabetes — 7 million of whom are undiagnosed. Complications include heart disease and stroke, high blood pressure, blindness, kidney disease, neuropathy, and amputation. Type 1 diabetes, the type Jillian’s brother has, where the body does not produce insulin, is usually diagnosed in children and young adults and makes up only 5 percent of all diabetes cases.

Jillian’s advice to others in similar situations is to just be there for your sibling. “It’s such a hard thing,” she said. It’s traumatic and involves an entire lifetime change of diet and routine when you’re insulin-dependent, she explained.

Watch for Jillian’s tweets (@JillianRoseReed) about it and how you can help raise funds to prevent and cure diabetes.

Meanwhile, Jillian is trying to reduce her chances of developing diabetes by exercising and eating healthy, which is especially hard for a teenager. She admits she’s far from perfect, but she’s trying.

And for all you young actors who dream of making it in Hollywood, I asked Jillian what she thinks was the key to her success. She told me that it’s her family (she lives at home). They believe in her, and the fact that they think she can succeed made her want to keep going when she faced rejection. She told me about a time when someone in the business told her that she’s good at acting but not that good. No matter who you are, you’re always going to get that, she pointed out. And so her advice to young actors is, “definitely don’t give up.”

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The Other Side of the Window by S.Z. Berg

What would you do if you knew the truth, but no one would believe you?

"[Y]ou will be hooked until the last page." William D. Curnutt "Pastor Dan" (Wichita, KS, United States)

"Savannah [will become] that scared, struggling, terrified part of you ... it won't much feel like reading, but like living it yourself, and intensely." L.E.Olteano - Butterfly-o-meter Books

"[H]er story will stay with you and make you look at those around you with a little more compassion and understanding, and maybe even a little more paranoia!" Amanda Alberson

"[T]he story will haunt you long after! " J. Sprague

William Edwards and the Wizardly Glasses

William Edwards was not good at anything, or so he was told. When he doesn’t bring home a soccer trophy (when they’re given out just for showing up), his banker parents (who bought him off the Internet) think he’s an investment that’s just not paying off. Oh, they are a frightful pair, indeed, even throwing mustard parties, with plenty of gluten, when William is allergic to mustard — and has celiac, so he can’t eat wheat!

But everything changes for William when a knowing old lady gives him a pair of big green glasses with rose-colored lenses. His classmates tease him, because he looks like a frog. But they turn out to be wizardly glasses, and William is transported to Winkleberry, a school for children with wizzies (magical powers). There he meets a smart young girl, Bora, and another boy, Zandall, who help William learn about his wizzies and accidentally lead him to a time travel machine. But before William can travel back in time to save his real parents, who are being held captive in 1929 by a zygot (a monster that inhabits the homes of mean people), William must protect the gene pool in his fake parents’ back yard from mutation!